Exploring Nevada's backroads by bicycle

Ride Report: Beyond Bedell Flats, Dry Valley Creek

This set out to be a 40+ mile bike packing loop around Dogskin Mountains. The start/finish was Moon Rocks OHV area off Winnemucca Ranch Road. But it turned into a car camping trip with an exploratory ride because my trusty BOB trailer doesn’t fit my Fargo with 29×2.4 tires! Ha, I hadn’t used it in years. I have pulled it with 26″ and 700c (road bike) wheeled bikes but didn’t think that it wouldn’t fit the Fargo. I hadn’t even thought of trying it before we pulled out the gear at Moon Rocks. So we loaded back up and drove through Bedell Flats where we had ridden previously and picked a primitive campsite near a juniper forest in Dry Valley.

We followed the main jeep road through the junipers with Stateline Peak as a distant marker. The road crossed many dry washes and the map showed numerous branches of Dry Valley Creek as well as named springs. For an area refereed to as Dry Valley in a year with above average precipitation this must be quite an oasis. But currently we are in an extreme drought so I was surprised to see the main branch of Dry Valley Creek flowing.

Eventually the road paralleled and crossed the creek several times. We came across an old building and remnants of a corral or barn. The old cottonwood trees looked like the were home to all sorts of upland game. At one point the creek and road shared the same course and the road could be seen winding away in the distance. This became our turn-around point on this out and back exploration. This area will definitely get more of my attention in the near future. The roads make some nice loops as well as one-way routes into secluded canyons. My BOB trailer will get pulled in the future by my 650b hardtail mountain bike.